Ottawa city politicians will begin debate this week on a program to get people to stop using perfume, scented soaps, cleaners, and deodorants and possibly ban them altogether in public places.

OTTAWA - Ottawa city politicians will begin debate this week on a program to get people to stop using perfume, scented soaps, cleaners, and deodorants and possibly ban them altogether in public places.

Backers of the program say more and more people are becoming allergic to the chemicals used to make scents, and that the chemicals are known to trigger asthma attacks.

Under the proposal made by a citizens' committee on the environment, a public education program aimed at getting people to voluntarily stop using the scents would be followed by a mandatory ban in all city buildings, on transit, and at sports and community centres.

The third, and most controversial, phase would be a citywide bylaw banning scents in all public places. This would include bars, restaurants, malls, and all work places.

The citizens' committee provided no timetable for bringing in the three phases.

City staff examined the issue and say they are open to starting an information campaign among municipal employees, and switching cleaning products to the unscented type.

But, they are urging municipal politicians to reject all the citizens' committee's proposals dealing with the public.

"A public awareness program is not supported ... at this time, and there is presently no budget to support such a campaign," says a report by city staff going to politicians.

According to staff, a public advertising campaign on buses alone would cost around $87,000 per year with signs for the city's roughly 400 municipal buildings being about $10,000 just to produce.

A small price to pay for people's health, according to the citizens' committee.

"Everyone should have safe and healthy places in which to live and work," says the citizens' committee report. "People have the right to breathe clean air and not to be exposed to chemical fragrances causing unnecessary health problems."

The committee points to a 1999 survey of Canadians that found 2.5 million people suffer from asthma. Two other studies show that fragrances can trigger attacks in 72 per cent of people who have asthma.

If Ottawa passed a law against scents, it would be the first place in Canada to do so. However, anti-scent public campaigns are under way in Nova Scotia and the City of Halifax.

The universities of Toronto and Calgary, the Kingston General Hospital, and some federal buildings in Ottawa-Gatineau have also adopted programs designed to get people to use less perfumed products.

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